Tag: thinky thoughts

I’m not sure who actually said it because it’s been attributed to many people as far as I can tell, but there’s a quote one of my writing professors used to tell us. It goes something like this: “a critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the fighting is over and shoots the wounded”.

And honestly that’s all I think of when people are here talk about being “critical” of things. Hell, “critical” has become a replacement word for “negative” or “I actually hate this thing, thanks” in some circles. And I just wish I knew why.

Criticism isn’t a bad thing. It’s not even necessarily a negative thing, either. It can and often is an analysis of the faults and merits of art which is why professional literary critics, film critics, art critics, food critics, ect talk about what’s good and bad about whatever they’re critiquing. I suppose the urge to bash the hell out of whatever or to focus on the negative is very much in human nature, but I think it’s unnecessary most of the time.

I suppose I wish critique didn’t feel so much like kicking people when they’re down. It doesn’t have to be this way. It could be constructive.

Do you ever think about how, aesthetically as well as perhaps meta-narratively, the First Order and the Resistance are attempted rebrands of The Empire and Rebellion? Or about how both seem to operate on the idea that they’re fighting for glory like their predecessors in the days of old but all they really do is feed the war machine that allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get desperate? How, of all the ST characters, Hux and Poe are the only ones born when the Empire was still a thing? How the superiors of both factions seem to regard their younger officers as a little too gung-ho? 

Idk, I just think there’s something interesting going on in respect to how these two sides are so caught up in replicating the glory of the past. 

Sometimes I wonder why we as people romanticize certain things. Pirates, desperadoes, gangsters, ect. ect. But I don’t wonder in a judgmental way, you know? Like, I’m genuinely curious about what it is about certain types of criminals that makes people go “yeah, well, I *know* they were awful people, but I love a rogue.” 

I’m genuinely interested. If anyone has any studies or theories I’ll gladly read them. 

I’m one of those people who loooves debate. It’s sport to me. And, like, don’t get me wrong, I don’t do it for some kind of intellectual reason, I do it because I want to win. I love the mental challenge of agruements and the thrill of winning.

When I was in high school, (5 years ago now, which is strange to say) I was captain of the debate team, an award winning congressional debater, part of the Model UN, and I drafted legislation for Youth and Government (real legislation, too. Stuff my team argued in the State House in front of State Reps). So yeah, I fricken looove debate. I love fighting with words. It’s thrilling. I didn’t do much in college though, because the Mock Trial team was always at dumb times.

So given that it would make sense if I threw down on the internet all the time. But, I don’t. See, one of the things I was always guaranteed in debate matches was good faith arguements. No matter what side of an issue I was on or who I was debating, there was the pretense that no one was arguing to be a jackass. We debated for fun and sometimes we debated nonsense (my favorite was a Purge style piece of legislation that was just nuts) but we never really took much of it to heart. Outside of the matches and the floor meetings we hung out. We joked. We complainted about homework and got lunch and complimented each other on our skills. No one was there to be an ass.

But the internet is a strange beast. I can’t argue with people on the internet because there is no good faith. There is no changing of opinions. I can cite sources all day and I’m met with people who just don’t believe in survey data or certain sciences or like, facts. And trying to point out logical fallicies is a nightmare. It’s not about winning through intellect, it’s about winning through denial and name calling. And unfortunately it’s like that irl, too, anymore. It makes me sad, not just because I want a good word fight, but also because it’s clear too many people have just stopped caring about changing their opinions or listening.